Hospital heart care hearing set

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT), Robert Miller THE NEWS-TIMES

Published 1:00 am, Friday, April 9, 2004

DANBURY - Danbury Hospital's year-long campaign to expand its cardiac care services arrives at a crucial step May 12 when the state holds a hearing on the proposal."It is critical the community comes out and allows this issue to be heard," said Keith Hovan, the hospital's senior vice president for operations. The Office of Health Care Access, which regulates the services hospitals can offer, will hold the hearing from 1 to 7 p.m. at the hospital's John Creasy Auditorium. J. Robert Galvin, head of the Department of Public Health, will preside over the hearing. The agency has received a flood of comments from people in the community. About 25,000 have either signed a petition supporting the hospital's expansion of cardiac care or written letters on its behalf. But Hovan said it's important that people who have suffered from the lack of local care tell Galvin how it has affected them."We want to hear from people who have been through the experience, and from their family members," Hovan said. "We want the state to hear what it's like to come to Danbury Hospital with a heart attack and have to be transferred. We want them to explain the impact and the handicaps of having to travel to visit a family member who has been transferred." At stake in the hearing is how area residents get treated for heart attacks. These occur when blood clots inside artery walls work loose and constrict the flow of blood to the heart. If possible, doctors use angioplasty to clear the blockage, by inserting a catheter up to the clot, inflating a balloon at the end of the catheter to open the artery, then inserting a stent - a small metal coil - to keep it open. If this isn't possible, they perform open heart bypass surgery to route the blood flow around the blocked arteries. Only seven hospitals in the state offer angioplasty and open heart surgery - two each in Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven, and the University of Connecticut Medical Center in Farmington. Other community hospitals must treat heart attack patients with a variety of blood thinners - the so-called "clot-busters" - then observe the patient to see if the drugs work. If they fail, the hospital has to ship the patient via ambulance or Life Star helicopter to one of the urban hospitals. For that reason, several community hospitals, including those in Danbury, New Milford and Waterbury, have applied to OHCA to expand their cardiac care units. New Milford Hospital, which completed its hearing process on Feb. 5, is still waiting for the agency to make a decision, hospital spokeswoman Barbara Burnside said Thursday. Ordinarily, OHCA Commissioner Christine Vogel would have presided over the hearing; she did so in New Milford's case. But because she's worked at both Danbury and Waterbury Hospitals, she agreed that Galvin, her counterpart at the state Department of Public Health, should preside over the remaining cardiac care hearings. Danbury Hospital's Hovan said if the hospital wins state approval, it could begin offering expanded cardiac services before the year's end. Hovan said the hospital is already sending some of its staff to the Cleveland Clinic - one of the nation's leaders in cardiac care - to get training in advance of the decision. It has also signed contracted with five experienced physicians - two heart surgeons and three cardiologists who specialize in angioplasty - to work in Danbury once it gets OHCA approval. Despite the public support shown so far, Hovan said it's important for Galvin to see in person what better cardiac care means to the region."We think they'll be impressed in how engaged the community is in the process," he said. Contact Robert Miller at bmiller@newstimes.com or at (203) 731-3345.